Red Green Colourblind
by VenusJay
Summary: Loki's return to Asgard; Loki's family may never understand what led their son so far astray from them but they will do anything to bring back the son and brother they have loved all of time.
1. Chapter 1

Everything was white. Painful and hot; there seemed to be no end to the sensation of falling. He had resigned himself to an eternity of descent in they way that one does at the end. He found his thoughts drift with more purpose than he until he recalled a memory of her and held onto it tightly.

He did not expect to be glad when the pain ended. It had a purpose and now there was nothing. The words played over again, summing up every feeling of inadequacy. The void within him now encompassing him.

He tried to open his eyes but found only nothing when he did. A hazy mauve and flesh toned combination that made his head ache. When he tried to speak there was nothing through which the sound could travel. For a long time he cursed his powers that allowed him to live. Then he found the thought laughable. This was not living. Be had gotten what he had wished for in a fashion only he could have dreamed up.

He thought often of Frigga. He vaguely remembered someone loving him once and he reflected on the nice feeling it had brought.

A lot of the time he thought of home. The ice walls and cool palaces of the eternal winter. A small voice tried to tell him that had never been his home and he had never seen these places but it was regularly silenced and he was too tired to try and coax it back.

He had been cast aside, second to all and kept as a peace mechanism. He was a peacemaker no longer. He would bring chaos to the place he had once called home. Then his spirits lifted in the sight of glory and revenge and all at once the void was gone.

He existed somewhere, something was different. There were creatures around him. The Chitauri.


	2. Chapter 2

"Kneel."

Loki felt his knees hit the ground as they pushed down on his freshly healed shoulders. He was afraid.

"You are the betrayer of your realm, is it so?"

"Yes," he said quietly. He dared to look at who he faced but their face remained covered. A long silence stretched on but it was nothing to Loki anymore.

"Frost Giant," the voice of the other present spoke in confusion. Loki tensed, fearful but curious how it could be so obvious to all but himself. There were sounds of chatter from the Chitauri warriors that formed a circle around them. When he looked up this time the one seemingly in charge was but an inch from his face.

Long fingers reached out to stroke the skin of his temple, his helmet long since taken from him.

"You are no use to us, fallen Princeling," he spoke and gestured to the warriors to take him.

"You need the Tesseract," Loki said quickly flinching at the approach of the creatures. "I can give it to you."

"You bargain for your existence with treasure you do not have claim to," The Other laughed.

"I have claim," Loki replied almost smirking with delight at the simplicity of the request. "I am Loki Laufeyson. Prince of Jotunheim. The tesseract is mine."

He felt the ripple of shock amongst those gathered.

"Frost giant kin yet they should-"

"Reject me? I have been banished and disowned from the only family I have known. I wish only to become the King I have a birthright to."

He cast his eyes down once more when laughter broke around him.

"And how will you rule when you are King?"

"Mercilessly."

The Other seemed to look at him a long time.

"Very well. You shall have what you wish. Bring us the Tesseract and Earth is yours," he said as he motioned for Loki to stand. He did so on shaky legs but hid it well. There was a brief moment when he felt triumphant, almost turning to laugh at those who had tortured him. He admired the beautiful sceptre now presented to him bearing a blue gem stone. It looked exquisite and he already imagined the cool feel of the metal.

The Other extended it then to touch his chest, perhaps to bestow the necessary power and prepare him for the journey in recovering the Tesseract. Upon feeling it touch him, however, he wished more than anything he had never existed.

He would prefer his Jotunn flesh to be burned for eternity in the fires of the cosmos. He even reasoned he would prefer to run a blade across his mother's pale and beautiful neck. He would prefer to return to the void. In the darkest corners of his mind, a light began to grow and he felt a blackened and charred vine twist within him.

He was a proud creature and felt embarassed easily at displays of sentiment but now he screamed. He cried and begged as it seeped through every happy memory he had, twisting and pulling and shaping.

His father stealing him, Thor throwing him to the void. The void. His mother lying and protecting the monster who stole him. He would have been King, the first and beloved prince of Jotunheim, never trailing in a golden shadow. He screamed more now in anger, jealousy, pity. He knew then he had opened the path for the Frost giants. The reason he knew not but it felt purposeful.

This feels good, he thought to himself as he was dragged away. Blue eyes shining at things no other could see.


	3. Chapter 3

Thor could not bring himself to stand any closer. Watching silently, his eyes blurred when they carried his brother in. To see Loki injured as a result of his moment of humility had once been satisfying, but seeing him now, limp and peaceful and their magik carried him to the table; it burned Thor's heart.

"You believe him to be ill?"

Odin held Frigga in his arms and her words vibrated against his own chest.

"Such a sign of illness has never been known in Asgard before, but I have seen this elsewhere. I only hope you're son has it."

Frigga gasped at this and the matron was quick to explain.

"Apologies, I only meant I hope this is the cause of his behaviour, that his treachery didn't come from his own mind."

"You are saying he has been co trolled, his mind poisoned?"

Orderlies fussed around the machine as the golden soul form of Loki was worked by their hands. Even at this distance Thor could see the majestic streak of green that was Lokis' magic. He remembered seeing it in his mother when she had caught a flux when Thor was a child.

It was but a moment or two before there was an audible gasp from most of the room as a smoke of black rose through and around the gold, reaching and twisting and grasping. It formed the guise of a thick rope, binding with the green and growing in size.

"What does this mean," Odin stared with horror and held his wife tighter still. Thor's heart beat wildly in his chest as the healers looked to each other debating what to say. It was not like them to consider tact.

"My King, Loki's mind has indeed been poisoned. This is a dark magic that seems to have been at work for quite some time. Do you recall when his behaviour first began to change?"

Odin growled, 'Of course I remember you fool. How could I forget watching my own son turn against me. The moment those frost giants came for the Tesseract, I feared for him," he said with more anxiety than Thor had ever seen in him. 'I thought they had come for him. That they would tell him the truth of his nature and he would leave us."

"But this was when the barrier to Asgard allowed them through,' the healer in charge interrupted. At any other time Thor might have killed her for her disrespect.

"Yes," odin sighed with defeat.

"They did come for him," she said darkly. She waved her hands and a small shard of ice was pulled from within the streaks of light where Loki's heart resided. He whimpered from behind the muzzle and his eyes fluttered as though it had caused him pain. Thor couldn't stand it any longer and marched forward to remove the device that made him prisoner.

"They knew," Thor growled, his fists clenching on the side of the table as he looked down at his brother.

"They knew they would not succeed in taking the Tesseract so they decided to create someone who would. That's why he was spared. He thought their touch couldn't hurt him because he was Jotun but they never intended to hurt him. They wanted to plant a seed of doubt. When I saw him again on Midgard, I should have known. The Chitauri-they must have...". Thor silenced himself then feeling his voice weaken. Odin nodded in understanding.

"Heal him," Odin barked roughly. When he was met with silence he shouted again.

"My King, it may not be possible. We can strip away the poison, remove the evils done by the Jotunn, by the Chitauri, but there may be nothing of Loki left to fill the gaps.

It pained everyone's hearts to hear Frigga's cries. Loki's body tensed and Thor inhaled sharply to see his eyes open.

'Mother,' he heard as barely a whisper before the healer beside him placed a hand on his chest to return him to sleep.

'We must begin. You should not be here for this' she said sternly to them all. Odin nodded sagely and began to lead Frigga away.

"I will stay,' Thor said quietly.

"This is not a time to prove your nobility, Thor,' Odin said weakly.

"I will not see him alone through this and I will not have mother witness it. Please, I will stay, father.'

Odin stared at him for a moment, casting a glance to his other son's sleeping form before leaving.

"You are prepared to hold him," the healer asked him. He nodded, feeling ill.


End file.
